


Phoenix

by OpheliaAlexiou



Series: the Starwanderer Chronicles [1]
Category: Original Work, Science Fiction - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Relationships, Eventual Sex, Exploration, Gen, Psionics, Psychic Abilities, Science, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-11-05 05:09:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11006655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OpheliaAlexiou/pseuds/OpheliaAlexiou
Summary: Life scientist Dr. Selene Hallows, a powerful psychic, travels to a faraway world to explore and document the features and wildlife of the planet.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the abridged version of the story.

“All right, the apartment is clean, Kennedy's training is coming along well enough, there is fresh beef and turkey in the refrigerator, just make sure you keep her groomed and get her more accustomed to human contact,” Selene said, running through the list of stuff she had made for herself to make sure her best friend knew before she left.

“Seriously, though, camping?”

“Did you forget that I spent most of the summers of my childhood at summer camp? Hell, it was a camp counselor that gave me the birds and the bees talk,” Selene answered.

_It was also a camp counselor I lost my virginity to, four years later_ , Selene thought to herself.

“No, just didn't know you were such a big fan of the outdoors as to go camping by yourself for a week. That's a lot different than going to summer camp. I mean, summer camp is longer but there's other people, there's people there to ensure you're all right. Besides, where are you even going?”

“West Canada, I'm going to be too far out in the middle of nowhere for any kind of cell reception,” she answered.

“And what did you say Kennedy is?”

“A serval; I needed a special permit, but due to my scientific specialization I was felt to be an acceptable candidate, for having an exotic pet like this,” Selene replied, and her friend nodded in answer.

Her friend nodded her understanding in response, “Any special instructions, on that?”

“For now, just keep her inside, work on her with the litter-box because she's too young to be taken on walks, and be certain she gets enough meat and water,” Selene answered. Reagan was a responsible young woman, and Selene knew she'd be able to handle the responsibility of a week in the dark, so to speak, without having any trouble for Kennedy.

“Also, no having girls over,” she added firmly, and Reagan simply stuck her tongue out in answer.

“Yes, Misses Hallows,” she teased back, “What about boys?”

“Boys are fine, given that you're not into them,” Selene answered, somewhat sardonically.

“You are no fun at all,” Reagan smirked a little bit in answer and feigned a long-suffering sigh, but then continued, “Don't worry, I'll take good care of the cat and the apartment. You won't come back to a mess. My parents are glad to get me out of the house for a while, anyway, since they don't like anyone I bring home at all.”

“How _are_ Greta, Courtney, and Melanie, anyway?”

“My girlfriends are fine, thank you for remembering their names,” Reagan responded, with more warmth and less sarcasm, “my parents either don't remember or intentionally strive to forget. Oh, well. I guess they don't understand the idea of loving multiple people equally.”

“You're welcome; it's too bad your parents refuse to be open-minded,” Selene answered, and Reagan simply rolled her shoulders a bit in answer.

“Some parents tell their children to model their behaviour, and some parents tell their children to be a better person than they are,” Reagan replied, “I guess mine are the latter, and are perhaps regretting that. No worries, I'm mostly out of the realm of their authority since I am moving out in about nine days or thereabouts.”

“All right, well, thank you for agreeing to look after the apartment. I should head out now.”

“See you in a week, have fun and take care of yourself.” Reagan asserted, and gave a firm, platonic embrace before letting Selene leave. Selene nodded as she headed out the door.

“You bet. See you next week.”

_Glad we live close enough to Canada to make that story work without disrupting my expedition plans. Now to just take the bus to Vancouver._

Once she arrived in Vancouver, Selene made a point to be seen trekking through the city until she reached the city's limits, until she reached the point where civilization and wilderness stared at one another face-to-face. She paused to take a look over her shoulder, then nodded to herself and walked into the forest, though the forest was hardly the destination of her expedition, and once she'd trekked about a mile, she stopped in a clearing. There, she pulled the suit from her backpack and stripped off her normal clothes, before slipping into the environment suit bestowed her by her benefactors.

 

_Standing in a cargo hold of the science vessel, Selene looked around at all the immense-seeming crates even as her large arthropodal host moved toward one of the crates. She noticed, as she watched what she had learnt in the last few days was called a Nataran, opened a crate that was large comparative to her own modest size. It occurred to Selene the crate the Nataran had opened was large enough for twelve of her with room left over for additional contents, besides._

“What are you looking for?” _she asked._

“We have prepared two items for you, something to assist you once you have reached full maturation for the human species. An environment suit, and a mobile field emitter, so that your new abilities won't be completely useless to you,”  _was the answer of the Nataran host, long neck twisting as he looked at her where she stood behind him and somewhat to his left, dressed in her swimsuit once more. They had approached her while she was at summer camp, swimming near a remote part of the shoreline of the namesake lake of Camp Harney Lake, close to her home in Riley, Oregon._

“Oh, cool,”  _she replied, blinking a little wide-eyed as she saw the Nataran heave the mobile field emitter out from the crate with the combined effort of all six arthropodal arms,_ “Am I going to be able to lift that?”

“We gave you tactile telekinesis. It will allow you to carry up to one thousand pounds right now. It will continue to grow as your body and mind matures, and as you become accustomed to using it, to a maximum of ten thousand pounds, in about ten years,”  _he replied._

“Your neural pathways show some impressive characteristics. You will reach neural maturity fully three Earth years ahead of the average arc of your species. Extraordinary,”  _he continued. She had been keeping a mental tally on what seemed to be Nataran tendencies: conversational, friendly, from a species for whom consent was fundamentally central to virtually all interactions aside from active combat. Sweet, sensitive, and herbivorous, they seemed to come in a mild range of warm colours – shades of tan and light brown, soft yellows, muted oranges and reds. This particular individual was of the first of these, sort of cocoa coloured, about the same size as a thoroughbred though probably nowhere near the weight._

_When he moved to her, he set the mobile field emitter down in front of her, a mechanism fully as large as she was at that moment, herself, and undoubtedly noticeably heavier, and a shimmering metallic suit that looked sleek and snug-fitting._

“Am I supposed to tell my parents about this or hide these things? Cause that's awful shiny and this emitter's sort of huge,”  _the twelve-year-old asked, directly but with a respectful tone of voice. She'd learnt the Natarans favoured directness, but polite directness._

“The environment suit has a camouflaging function, allowing it to blend with environments when you have grown large enough to make use of it. The mobile field emitter, may prove more... problematic, yes,”  _he said in response, thinking on the matter in question. Selene had a point: it was true she would need a way to conceal without having to explain how she acquired an alien device as large as herself, and then explain how she could carry something heavier than her._

“Ah, yes. One moment,” _he said a moment later, touching a couple points on the mechanism and opening up one of the emitter's panels, quickly and sequentially tapping in a new entry,_ “It is voice-activated and hard-linked to your genetics, meaning you're the only one who can issue voice commands or make any future programming modifications. You'll be able to voice-command programming modifications you want.”  _As he spoke, he continued his manual programming updates._

“I am inputting a new feature. The emitter will induce targeted amnesia: anyone other than yourself who looks at it will be unable to remember the mechanism or any feature thereof when they look away from it. I am including a function in which you can add genetic-locked exceptions by voice command, and revoke that exception by voice command. It can also reconfigure itself according to voice-command in terms of physical shape of the engineering, so you can more easily mount it on something if you feel you must do that.”  _He explained thoroughly, amicably, but mindfully considerate of the fact that, for all that she was a twelve-year-old, she was a highly-intelligent twelve-year-old who had immersed herself heavily in the genre of science fiction writing. As such, she felt they had learnt she needn't be treated like an ignoramus._

“Awesome, sounds perfect. So, uh, what about the spacesuit?”

“The environment suit has an internal power source, as well, and has environmental control functions and shielding functions. It includes radiation shielding, heating and cooling, you will still need to remove it to bathe, relieve yourself, take care of brushing your teeth or combing your hair, etcetera.”  _Selene nodded in answer to the explanation, mentally noting the distinction of environment suit from the generic term of spacesuit which she had used._

 

As she pulled the hood of the environment suit up over her head, the mask automatically snapped into position and sealed the suit. The shimmering polymerized surface immediately went from chromatic to shades of blue, brown, and green, blending her into the environment almost totally, aside from the backpack. Now ready for her expedition aside from a single item she still needed, she closed her eyes and focused her willpower on her apartment's walk-in closet, where the emitter sat dormant. A shimmer of dim, violet luminescence, and she vanished from the Canadian wilderness to the closet, touching the emitter and a large heavy-duty storage container and then, levitating up off the floor, she returned to the clearing in Canada's southwestern woodlands.

Then, her mind turned outward, eyes closed as her chin lifted, and she used the special sensory receptors within her mind that allowed her to sense psychic wellsprings across vast tracts of time and space. Finding one within a scant distance of a mere twelve light years, she focused her will and thought on that destination as she sat on the top surface of the emitter. Then, with another dim shimmer of purple light, she vanished from the Canadian wilderness once more, with her backpack, a large storage container, and the emitter, and swept instantaneously across the space-time continuum.

“Warning. Atmosphere contains extensive thermonuclear radiation. Exposure to planetary radiation lethal to human genetic structure,” the environment suit's internal computer notified her promptly as soon as she arrived on the planet; it was an unfamiliar experience, she hadn't ever actually used these mechanisms yet, or used her ability to make a jump across vast distances measured in light years. She had been warned that jumps like this would require her to rest afterwards, for a length of time determined by how far she'd gone, which meant twelve hours of not using her psionic abilities whatsoever to let her psionic energies recover.

“Activate mobile field emitter. Atmosphere: Earth, Fiji. Activate radiation and kinetic shield,” she said aloud, while sliding down off the mechanism to stand looking at the new world she found herself standing on. A blue sky with pure white clouds, but an atmosphere with an almost incomprehensible amount of radiation in it, and as she realized she was on top of a mountain, she looked out over a sprawling landscape. An advanced civilization, an urban metropolitan sprawl spreading a vast distance from the looks of it, but eerily silent and motionless.

As she studied it, and considered it, she wondered at what could have occurred on this planet, looking around at the life that continued to exist. Plants, mostly, which seemed to be flourishing in spite of the vast volumes of radiation, on top of that insects and small non-arthropodal lifeforms. Some feathered, some furred, but all relatively small, yet still, flourishing. She watched as the animals scurried, scampered, or flitted away as the dome formed around her, expanding around her suit, creating a dome with a radius of ten metres from the device.

“Field active,” the mobile field emitter announced, “planetary condition: radioactive. Field extends one metre down below planetary surface for user security. Radiation Level inside field: 0% – environment is safe for Earth-based lifeforms.”

Selene couldn't help but to notice that the flourishing life was, also, fluorescing, or at least certainly appeared to be, though it could have been simply a result of her mask. Given the field emitter indicated a safe environment inside the field, however, she tapped her left forearm and retracted the mask and pulled back the hood. She took a breath, and sighed when it smelled precisely as the fresh air of Fiji on Earth would smell, and then looked around once more.

“All right, so it isn't just my imagination. Life on this planet is glowing. Fascinating,” she said, speaking to herself, then turned to the large crate she had brought with her. She pulled out a folding table and unfolded it, setting it up, followed by a chair, and then, her laptop computer. Plugging it into the emitter, she turned it on and took a seat, loading it up quickly, and promptly launching the documentary video-log program.

“This is Doctor Selene Hallows. Expedition One. Planet has been subjected to tremendous irradiation, but it is even still home to life which seems to flourish: vibrant, active, energetic, as if to spite the level of radiation. This planet is twelve light years from Earth – direction unknown, astronomical identification of the planet unknown. However, the planet appears to have a stable orbit around a Class G white-yellow star.

Given the planetary characteristics, at a glance, the name Phoenix seems appropriate. Life has risen from the ashes, thriving and enduring, flourishing and, also, fluorescing. Bioluminescence appears common on the planet at this stage in its' terrestrial history.

Phoenix Expedition objectives:

Determine cause of radiation.

Document the native lifeforms.”

Once she concluded, she left-clicked her mouse-button and terminated the video-feed, saving the video-log file and then closed the laptop computer, though she left it plugged in. The emitter was solar-powered, and whatever else the planet's current predicament involved, sunlight was still plentiful enough to keep it running indefinitely.

_All right,_ she thought to herself, _now that that's out of the way I can rest and let my psionics recover, and then start to document the wildlife and avoid premature conclusions as I look for the cause of the radiation. One thing's certain, some kind of event served as the catalyst for it, because it clearly didn't start out like this._ As she ruminated on that, she pulled out a cot and set it up, removed her environment suit and laid it on the table beside the laptop, and took the opportunity to sleep through at least a few hours of her recovery from a twelve-light-year jump.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Selene continues her investigation of the planet, documenting the irradiated wildlife and investigating the cause of the radiation, itself.

When she woke, Selene drew down the covers and sat upright, turning perpendicular to let her legs dangle over the edge of the cot as she wiped her eyes clean, then looked around. The wildlife had become much more bioluminescent, when the sun went down during her rest, and cast the world entirely differently.

_Fascinating, but unsurprising. Nightfall seems to prompt a sharp increase in the lumens produced by photophores in all levels of the biome,_ Selene thought to herself as bare feet touched soft earth and she stretched her muscles even as she continued to look around.

She took a few minutes to wake up, and took out some of her hygiene supplies to brush her hair, brush her teeth, to run cleaning tissues over most of her body, before slipping into her environment suit once more. Once that was done she got the camera she had brought with her for video logging, and made a slow video sweep of the environment to document what she was seeing. As she reached the panoramic view down into a valley with a metropolitan sprawl that stood in relative ruin, making sure it was the last thing she turned her camera on, she zoomed in on it to capture a first glimpse of the ruins below. Then, setting the camera on the simple folding table she brought, before pulling up the hood and activating the facial mask, before drawing a number of research tools out of her storage case for the documentation process.

Somewhere between the seventeenth and eighteenth insect she was examining, carefully, once she had obtained the small arthropod, there was the sound of a crackling hum from the dome around her. She paused and looked up, and around, seeking the source of the sound, as if something had struck the kinetic barrier the mobile field emitter produced for Selene's protection.

“Emitter. Identify sound.”

“An object impacted the kinetic barrier,” the feminine voice of the emitter answered.

“Define object.”

“Object identification unavailable.”

“Was it caught on sensors?”

“Affirmative.”

“Display holo-form of object.” In answer, a translucent image of a bioluminescent avian formed, approximately the size of a large raven, with four eyes and a mixed plumage of black, white, and red.

“Fascinating specimen; was the specimen injured by impact?”

“Negative. Object was unharmed by impact with the non-electric kinetic barrier.”

“Good,” Selene said, to herself mostly, the emitter's responsive diagnostic computer scarcely needed an answer, but it was just her natural reaction to respond even if it was for her own benefit, only.

It took her two days to fully document the mountaintop biome – dozens of species apiece of insects, rodent-like animals, and birds, a handful of fox-sized herbivores and a handful of similarly-sized carnivores, and a few score species of flowers, bushes, and trees. Now, she could turn her attention to the world below the mountaintop. She could only assume the mountaintop she was on, was archetypal for mountains on the planet overall, though she knew that there might be some who might want her to come back here and document further, someday. For now, however, with the mountaintop fully documented and processed, the next objective came sharply into relief for her.

As she stood looking over the ruins of the metropolitan sprawl in the valley far below her, her mind wandered over the environment she observed.

_What the hell happened here? Who are the people who once dwelt here? I hope somewhere in there, I may discover answers to these questions. Maybe I'll even discover answers to questions I don't know to ask, yet._

_Seriously should have taken that minor elective in anthropology._

She closed her eyes, focused on the city below, and in a shimmer of dim violet light, she swept across the miles that separated her from it, and appeared on the outskirts of the city. Her eyes opened, and looking through the environment suit's mask, she noticed sculpted stone monoliths around her, as well as blocks that had engravings on them.

_… right,_ _ so not only do I land on a huge, round tomb, on my first time leaving the planet, but then when I begin my investigation, I drop right into the middle of a cemetery. _

_ Apropos. _ She took a deep breath and let it out, watching steam form on the inside of her mask and then dissipate an instant later, before beginning to look around, more seriously. Observing a particularly interesting statue, she walked over to it and narrowed her eyes as she examined it.

_ Interesting... _

“Activate in-suit audio-log. Activate voice-command mask-mounted camera.

“Doctor Selene Hallows, Expedition Phoenix, audio log one.

“I have discovered a cemetery here on Phoenix, on the outskirts of what seems to be a metropolitan centre, in ruins. Cemetery contains similar features to such locations on Earth; monoliths, tombstones, sculpted statues.

“The tombstones are engraved. Capture.” A click as the mask-mounted camera triggered and took a photograph of the grave-marker she was looking at directly.

“Engravings depict a calligraphic script, somewhat on the thick side, strictly vertical, no slant. Capture. How much time has passed since this civilization died?

“The cemetery has many statues, each identical. Primatial, slender, precise size indicators unreliable, sculptures are frequently scaled larger than the subject. Sculpture depicts species with two arms, two legs, two tails of a slim variety with a smooth surface, coming to a point at the end. Capture.

“Depiction of tails suggests excellent flexibility, an approximation of tail length would suggest each tail is near that of the distance between the hipbone and the top of the crown. Statue depicts a species with ears that appear to include bony ridges where primatial species on Earth have cartilaginous lobes, approximately twenty percent larger proportionately than a human ear comparative to the size of the skull. Capture.

“Cemetery contains numerous large mausoleum structures; high probability that existential threat to the indigenous sapient produced a shift toward lying to rest greater numbers in less space. Burial, therefore, no longer optimal performance.

“Close audio log.” A chime sounded, indicating that the audio log had closed.

_ All right, now to look for something other than a graveyard. Maybe somewhere in this city, there's answers... _

Leaving the cemetery and moving into the streets, she crouched to identify the ground.

_Black sand. Whatever they used to make their streets, it's apparently been so long their streets returned to dust and not just whatever passed along those streets. Amazed the buildings are even standing anymore ..._

_… and those are arrows. Guess some things are universal, like “go this way, please.”_

A deep breath, and she lifted off the ground, then allowed herself to float off the ground once more, and then in the direction the arrows indicated. She had no other lead to follow, no other method by which to determine what had happened.

Nothing grew in the black sand, creating streets even in the ruins that had deteriorated so drastically over an untold number of intervening years. The buildings, however, seemed to be surviving, although why or for how much longer, Selene had no way to readily identify. Overgrown, with shimmering vines, shining insects and glowing insectivores and granivores, the planet was recovering from the radiation that had annihilated all large organisms that had existed, prior. Perhaps, on this planet at least, the smaller organisms were simply more adaptive to their environment, reliant on fewer variables and readier to adapt to evolving situations.

For over an hour, she followed extraterrestrial road-signs, arrow-like symbols that all universally pointed her in one single direction, until she reached a very odd hill. Hovering over it, she discovered that it was only part of a hill, located in a part of the city that seemed like it may have once been a park reclaimed by wilderness. A sharp drop on one side, she floated in and landed to look at the sharp drop, and discovered there to be a broad, indeed cavernous, opening in the side of the hill.

Overgrown from the hill and surround, vines dangled over the edge like a curtain before the massive opening, even if not enough to bar her passage. Hardening the layer of tactile telekinesis wreathing her environment suit, she approached it and pushed aside vines with one hand, stepping into an unnatural chamber of aluminum, whose rustproof qualities permitted it to survive virtually intact. Pausing to turn and look at the city in ruins, she stared for a moment, and thought of how all the planet must have looked, and remembered a science fiction game she used to play.

“Well, now I know what Tuchanka would look like if nobody had prevented the krogan blowing it to smithereens,” she said aloud, if only to herself, before chuckling a little and realizing how she looked. One protective suit was as good as another, but when those suits were made more comfortable to be in for long stretches of time and to accommodate a greater range of physical activity, they became more like battle armour.

“Guess that makes me the quarian exploring the krogan tomb. Lovely,” she mused to herself as she examined what was the entrance room of the structure.

_… and this is a fallout shelter. Guess the Tuchanka reference is accurate, after all. This planet was the location of a terrible war, the indigenous sapient caused the radiation, themselves. Unfortunate._

_Hopefully there will be more answers about these people in here, though. Everyone deserves to be remembered._

Proceeding into the vault, she soon found a column that sank hundreds of feet into the terra firma, complete with a series of stairs and platforms of the same metal encasing the structure. The bioluminescence of the place let her look down it to see that at some point, there was water, illumined by dimly-luminous green plant matter clinging to the walls both above and below the level of that water. The water, itself, appeared to be clean, clear, and blue, though nothing she would consider letting in her mouth, for health reasons.

“Ness, calculate vertical distance to water.”

“Calculating,” responded the suit-mounted computer's feminine vocal pattern, “present distance to water surface is five hundred metres.”

“One thousand six hundred forty feet and some inches. Lovely. Ness, calculate depth of water.”

“Calculating,” responded the feminine vocal pattern, “current depth of water is six hundred metres.”

“Ness, run a remote diagnostic on this facility and give me a report on your findings.”

“Command confirmed. Launching diagnostic,” the feminine voice answered, and with a nod, Selene moved to the edge and then dove off the landing, using her tactile telekinesis to propel her into the middle of the column. This would give her the position to bypass stairs that vanished into water, covered in some organic lifeform she would document when done with this part of her investigation.

_Let's just start at the bottom and work our way up, then if there's nothing here I'll be that much nearer to the exit._

As she neared the water, the bioluminescence in the algae and moss seemed faintly dimmer than it was above, and as she slid smoothly into the water and floated a few feet deep, she furrowed her eyebrows.

“Ness, calculate current radiation level.”

“Current planetary radiation exposure level is 2.1 kilosieverts. Current radiation exposure level within this structure is 3.8 kilosieverts,” the suit-mounted analytical computer answered.

“Simplify.”

“Current planetary radiation exposure level is approximately one million times greater than average radiation levels on Earth. Current radiation exposure level within structure is approximately one thousand times greater than Earth.”

_Right, so, lowest radiation level discovered so far and exposure would still kill me rather promptly._

_Reminds me of Lara Croft in the temple._

Focusing on the task ahead, she swam down until she reached the bottom, pausing to look up at the vast chimney of light that rose above her as she telekinetically held herself near the bottom. Locating the bottom of the stairwell, she moved through an open doorway into a large room where she caught a shimmer of movement. Bright, but small, Selene realized the environment here was likely another habitat, unwittingly created by whomever had once lived in this vault.

_Well, you never saw a shelter like this in Fallout._

Examining the room she was in, attempting to assess the potential use, she felt like she was obliged to discover, for science, as much as possible about these people, other than that they killed themselves off with a catastrophic thermonuclear war. Given the current room looked like an empty storeroom, empty aside from a metal desk and metal chair, and things on the former that had likely long-since rotted into nonexistence, she moved on.

“Analysis complete,” the feminine voice of her suit announced quietly, after three additional storerooms seemingly identical to the first, “81% of facility mechanisms are intact, but inoperative due to low power. 19% of facility mechanisms, including entrance, have been irreparably damaged.”

“Highlight intact machinery in the mask overlay,” she instructed.

“Overlay activated,” the vocal pattern of her suit's shipboard computer answered, though she saw no difference.

_Well, apparently there's nothing in here I can turn on to see what it is meant to do._

Proceeding on, she soon found what was unmistakably a kitchen, followed by a dining area, demonstrating a stark, cold metal décor that brooked no hope or optimism, no warmth.

“Activate in-suit audio-log. Activate voice-command mask-mounted camera.”

“Doctor Selene Hallows, Expedition Phoenix. Audio log two.

“I have discovered a fallout shelter, which would seem clear indication of the catalyst of the planet's extreme levels of radiation activity and exposure. Planet seems to have experienced a thermonuclear war between competing factions in the indigenous species of terrestrial sapient.

“Facility delves one thousand one hundred metres into the earth. Lowest six hundred metres are presently flooded.

“Current location would appear to be a dining area. Capture. Metal chairs, metal tables.

“Dreary, is the word that comes to mind. Kitchen is similarly cold, sterile. Capture.

“Most of the facility, itself, however, is intact. Construction is waterproof, rustproof, apparently radiation resistant.

“Exploration of facility is ongoing; storerooms on this lowest level are plentiful, and, notably, empty.

“Residents seem to have died of catastrophic loss of resource.” She paused as she noticed a luminous violet outline, on her view-screen, and swam in that direction.

“I have reached a large metallic door. Indicators of a mechanism that runs on electric power. Powering.” She used a bit of tactile telekinesis to activate the suit's ability to channel a wireless electrical charge to an electrical mechanism, which powered the door's handle to spin as it opened and unlocked. Alien words filled the water, distorted beyond all possibility of recognition by the irradiated water between them, but a vocal language was, at least, clarified. As the door opened, she was hauled through it by the discovery of open air on the other side, and quickly used her telekinetic strength to force the door to shut once more, then looked around.

“Door has led into a small room with a door on the other side. Powering.” As she powered the door, a grate opened in the floor and siphoned out the water, before the second door's handle spun and opened.

“Proceeding with exploration of facility,” she said as she passed through the door and closed the door behind her as a further expression of electricity powered it long enough to lock shut. Then, turning, she discovered that she had entered an unexpected chamber, indeed she stood on a ledge overlooking a massive chamber.

“I find myself on the uppermost balcony of a large chamber. Capture.

“It appears to be a storeroom for inedible items of a nonperishable, important sort. The term monumental comes to mind as an appropriate descriptor for this set of chambers, particularly if the doors lead to other rooms of similar size to this.

“Proceeding to the ground level of chamber one.”

As she landed, she pulled a box off a shelf and walked to a table, setting the box down gently. Pulling the top from it, gingerly, she blinked and stared as she looked inside, and saw books neatly and carefully arranged.

“Capture.

“Boxes would appear to contain the cornerstones of world culture. Books. Language is unrecognizable to me, and I have no basis by which to even attempt to figure out what these books are titled.” She arranged a selection of them onto the table, nevertheless, gingerly.

“Capture. Book thickness seems variable, as on Earth. If I could comprehend the titles, I might know if they are all of the same topic or general idea, or if the storage was neat but organizationally haphazard and rushed. The former seems to be the likelier answer. Great care appears to have been taken to preservation of this room. Chamber is arid, cold.

“Restoring books and boxes to previous location and continuing exploration of the room. Hopefully when I leave, I choose a box with books in it that'll prove useful to people who can decipher them.

“Entering second chamber, now.

“Room appears to be some manner of artistic storeroom. Paintings, sculptures.

“Paintings and sculptures depict different individuals of a lifeform similar in appearance to the cemetery statues.

“Hypothesis that this is a representation of the indigenous sapient may have been accurate. Capture.

“No additional doors, but stairwell leading down. Continuing exploration of facility.

“Close audio log.” As she continued, she quietly explored the art storerooms; thousands of paintings, hundreds of sculptures, capturing images of dozens but offering little in the way of further dialogue. Once she was done, she returned to the first room, and selected a box. Then, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and vanished in a dim glow of violet light, and returned to her campsite.

“Emily, run a radiation purge on this box and activate the restorative stabilizer. Notify me when the latter finishes,” Selene instructed as she placed the box on the table.

“Command confirmed. Purging radioactive activity and exposure from target.” A gentle purple light rolled through the box, first vertically, then horizontally from one side to the other on the box's secondary axis, and again horizontally over the box's tertiary axis. She watched for a few minutes, waiting, until the sound of a soft chime.

“Radiation purge complete. Activating restorative stabilizer,” declared the emitter's softly feminine vocal-pattern.

Once the radiation purge was complete, Selene slipped out of her environment suit once more and laid it neatly on the large storage case, presently closed, and then slipped into something more comfortable, in the form of a tee and shorts as she looked up at the sky.

_Surprisingly tropical for a mountaintop. I wonder if the planet was always this warm, or did their atomic war alter the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere? How long before this planet regains balance?_

_Some good questions, have no answers we can yet provide._

Lying down on her cot for a while, she stared at the sky through the dome of the shield, and considered where to go next on the planet. Mountaintops were not the only biome on the planet, there were other biomes that could have other types of wildlife, both floral and faunal, worth documenting. Of course, that would require her to be able to actually see the region all around far better even than a mountaintop allowed, so perhaps she could get a bird's-eye view and look for a coastal area.

_I'd need to make sure the dome is well enough back from the water, though, so that it doesn't block off any water an animal in the area may need or rely on, or places for amphibious life to come ashore._

_Glad I have Ness and Emily to speed up the diagnostics and genetic analyses, or I would be unable to see results at all for three weeks and would have to rely on some lab on Earth. I can't risk someone with a completely dismissive mindset toward the possibility of exobiological lifeforms trying to 'Earth' it._

Slipping back into her environment suit, she rose up in the air to ascend until she could see far enough away to see beyond the immediate panorama of the mountaintop. She wasn't on the uppermost point of the mountain, after all, but it was also difficult to see past the valley rim in the direction of the ruins.

Looking around from altitude across tremendous distances, she could see the distance presence of water, activating a long-range examination feature to 'zoom in,' as Reagan would have put it. Descending back to her campsite, she knew her next destination, but even at 'maximum zoom,' she couldn't see more than just that there **were** lifeforms present down there.

Descending back to the ground, she made a mental notation of the location she was planning to go, again removing the environment suit so she could lay on her cot, stare at the sky, and relax. All she had to do now was to wait to be notified of the completed radiation-purge, it was better not to use her teleportation ability while a major program was running on her emitter. For the moment, at least, she was able to relax for a few hours of serene rest.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. Hallows completes her research on the planet she has dubbed Phoenix, and meets an unexpected new friend.

 

On reaching the new destination, she reviewed the surroundings and retrieved samples first from the trees and from the shrubs and grasses on the coastline. Following that, she moved toward the water, while waiting for evidence of seabirds, or other coastal fauna.

“Activate heel-weighting,” Selene instructed.

“Heel-weighting activated,” came the response from Ness' smooth yet digital voice. As Selene then walked into the water, remaining connected to the seafloor as she went in to collect samples of coastal flora, and video-documenting the animals swimming around in the area around her.

“Familiar technology detected,” announced Ness abruptly, and Selene stood from a crouched position collecting a sample of what appeared to be an irradiated analog of coral on Earth, and looked up.

“Locate.”

“Emily.”

“Deactivate heel-weighting.”

“Command confirmed.”

Selene rose up from the surface and used her telekinetic abilities to lift herself further, rising out of the water where she immediately saw an unexpected sight. Inside the dome, she observed a floating sphere, glittering and shimmering, with a faint whir sound, as well.

“Familiar technology detected,” echoed an unfamiliar, masculine voice, one that sounded like the voices of Nataran individuals she had met during her examination, years prior. It had the crimson colouring of raspberries, in her opinion, with gold accentuation, coupled with a transparency that made it obvious that aside from the fact it was floating, it was not of any human manufacture, or local construction. Floating forward and sliding through the dome into the shielded area, she landed.

“Hello, who are you?”

“I am a Trans-Oceanic Research-Function Assessment Node, constructed by the Sovereignty of Pendarus, designed and constructed by Nataran engineering personnel.”

“... I am going to call you Torfan. What brings you to this planet?”

“I was sent to this planet twelve stellar orbits ago, tasked with research and assessment objectives,” Torfan replied, as the soccer-ball-sized drone whirred and a gold iris narrowed and expanded, “You are human. Identify?”

“Examination Subject 03, Selene Hallows,” she answered, using both the Nataran clinical designation alongside of her name, to ensure the Nataran-constructed drone would be able to identify her.

“Scanning,” answered the drone, whirring softly as the iris rotated, visibly, like water being stirred steadily in a cup while it focused the solitary optic on her, “Identification confirmed. Hello, Selene Hallows. What brings you to this planet?”

“Exploration; I am a scientist – microbiology, wildlife biology, ecology. I came to this planet to document wildlife, floral and faunal. Once here, I decided I needed to determine a cause of the irradiation.”

“Irradiation was induced by indigenous sapient through the use of thermonuclear instruments, an approximated one thousand four hundred seventy-two stellar orbits before today,” Torfan answered, and Selene nodded.

“That had been my deduction, aside from the dating.”

“Hold. You have been documenting planetary wildlife and taking genetic samplings?”

“Correct.”

“Which biomes have you examined so far?”

“I am only here for one week. I documented the mountaintop biome, which is where I arrived, on the mountaintop just there,” she answered, turning and pointing at the mountains she had arrived on, nearby.

“I have not documented the mountain biome. I have documented marsh, tropical, arctic, and desert biomes. Are you prepared to share the data your documentation has uncovered in the mountain biome?”

“Of course; are you willing to share your documentation of the biomes you visited?”

“Your proposal is acceptable,” Torfan replied as she moved up toward him, retracting her mask, lowering the hood, as she leaned in and looked at him closely. The drone twisted somewhat, one direction then the other, left then right, while it observed her. She lifted a hand and tapped on the material inquisitively.

“Hmm. Looks like a red Glyph, sounds like red glass.”

“Scanning. Scanning. Unfamiliar reference. What is this _Glyph_ you mention?”

“An information drone on a science-fiction video game I played when I was younger,” she answered, “nothing you would have familiarity with, understandably. What is the elemental composition of your surface construction?”

“Aluminium, oxygen, nitrogen,” Torfan answered simply.

“Aluminium oxynitride, interesting. Very sturdy construction, interesting the Natarans are using this material. Well, anyhow, over here. You have a wireless connector, yes?”

“Correct.”

“Excellent. Here, sync up with this,” she answered, opening and turning on her laptop computer.”

“Synchronizing. Synchronizing. Exchanging filed documentation. Documentation exchanged. Thank you, Doctor.”

“You're quite welcome, Torfan. What manner of wildlife documentation features does your construction include?”

“I am equipped with an advanced nonthermal scanning laser program, as well as a scanning field program for work that incorporates cooperative efforts between three or more drones of my model,” Torfan answered. A momentary pause and the drone whirred, turning slightly left-to-right and back again, then up and then down again.

“Please note: your equipment contains adaptive hardware. This program is compatible with the adaptive hardware.”

“I'm sorry, what does that mean?”

“I could transmit installations of the scanning laser program to your environment suit and mobile field emitter.”

“That would be extremely helpful. Thank you.”

“Happy to be of assistance, Doctor. Transmitting program now.” She took a seat on her cot and waited patiently as the drone transmitted the program, first to Ness and then to Emily, allowing her emitter to begin doing a cross-sectional scan of the air and soil.

“I think I will head into the water to document marine wildlife, while you document coastal wildlife above-water?”

“Your proposal is acceptable, Doctor. Pleasure to be working with a friend of Pendarus.” She smiled a bit in answer before walking back into the water, where she started to use the scanning laser to begin gathering information on the marine soil, and anything that appeared as if it might be a lifeform. She found the planet's animals that might be analogous to corals and mollusks on Earth were fairly easily-identified by the fact they were bioluminescent when the sediment and rocks, quite simply, were not.

Selene was, ultimately, surprised by the sheer diversity of the faunal life in the shallows, outside of fishes, she was able to identify twelve species of crustacean, nine species of mollusk, and fourteen species of coral. She may not have been a marine biologist, herself, specifically, but twelve species of crustacean struck her as somewhat of a large number.

By the time she had to depart to return to Earth, they had jointly documented the coastal biome, as well as savanna and marshland biomes, before she had to bid him farewell.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Selene returns to Earth, and unexpected new opportunities and friendship, as well as beginning to plan her next expedition...

On her return to Earth, she arrived directly on the roof of her building, activating Emily's camouflage program and taking a few hours of rest, before making the jump back to Vancouver. Then, it was a simple matter of returning by bus, as it was how Reagan was presently expecting her to return, and coming in normally. A restful last leg of the journey, the bus was comfortable, perhaps because she spent the money needed to get a ticket on one of the better bus companies. As she walked out of the bus, Reagan was waiting as expected, and offered a bit of a smile in answer to her friend as she greeted her with a quick hug.

“How was Kennedy?”

“She's doing fine, it's only been a week. How was your Canadian camping trip?”

“It was quite pleasant – fascinating experience, really. I gathered some information, did some research, took genetic samples, did the appropriate documentation. You'll see it all soon, I promise.”

“So you basically went  _science camping_ , not  _normal_ camping. Awesome,” Reagan replied, somewhat dryly and the slightest bit sardonically, to which Selene smirked.

“Well, I  _did_ get doctorates in wildlife biology and ecology, it would seem a waste to not put them to use when I go on even a brief expedition,” she answered, “Thanks for taking care of Kennedy. I may need you to do that a lot more often, I have a rather high number of other expeditions coming up that I want to go on.”

“Ooh,  _mysterious_ ,” Reagan teased, “What, you ran into someone while camping who wants to hire you to go on all these expeditions?”

“Not exactly. You'll see, soon enough, I promise.”

“Okay now you're just  _trying_ to be mysterious, Bond, Jane Bond,” Reagan teased. Selene chuckled a little bit at the reference, but rolled her shoulders as they walked up the stairs and into her apartment, where she greeted Kennedy and then went to her room to set down her backpack.

“Well, all I can say is pay attention to my YouTube channel, it is about to become  _very_ interesting,” she answered.

“All right, then, and when should I expect to see this new video being added to the internet?” asked Reagan from a position standing in the doorway as Selene tapped away at the keyboard on her computer.

“In about,” she paused for more than two minutes as she worked on the keyboard, then nodded, “now.” Reagan let one eyebrow rise in answer before rolling her shoulders and going to the kitchen, where her laptop was, presumably to load it up and watch it.

“ _Seriously, a six-hour video?_ ” called Reagan a few minutes later as Selene was sending the documentation she had collected to every scientific institute and university with a respected science program across three continents.

She suspected that scientists in the United States, Canada, Australia, and throughout Europe, would indubitably be skeptical of it, who wouldn't be? She knew they would eventually see the truth, however, but how long that would take, she couldn't accurately guess.

By the time Reagan was done watching the video, she was, of course, understandably incredulous.

“You went on a seven-day expedition  _to another planet?_ ”

“Well, I said I would be out of cellular range, didn't I?” she replied, soliciting a deadpan expression from Reagan in response to the statement.

“You failed to mention you would also be out of the entire solar system. I can safely assume the expeditions you've mentioned are to go back to this planet?”

“Why would I go back? I've documented several biomes, I've disseminated my collated research data amongst the majority of the scientific community relevant to the associated scientific disciplines, and short of someone commissioning a return to the planet, I have other destinations.”

“Wait, how did you even  _get_ there? How did you even know there was a  _there_ to go to?”

“That's a rather long story and very complicated,” Selene answered simply. Reagan lifted an eyebrow and stood her ground with her intense curiosity.

“I've got time, Ms. No Girls Over While I'm Gone.”

Acknowledging the statement with a nod, Selene spent the next few hours explaining it all to Reagan in some detail – from the examination by Nataran exobiologists, to what precisely her reward from the Natarans permitted her to  **do** .

When she was finally done with that, the phone rang, and it was her mother, pressing for a  _similar_ explanation. She had expected it, though, and was ready for it. She was also ready for the automatic doubt-response and eventually asking her why she called if she wouldn't believe the answer, and hanging up the phone.

For her part, Selene did not feel compelled to justify herself, validate herself, or waste her time defending her data against the automatic propaganda of those who had decided “aliens” didn't exist, far before ever hearing about her evidence.

 

“Doctor Selene Hallows?” asked a voice behind her, as Selene stood at the counter of the local Starbucks, receiving the cup of iced coffee she had ordered, and paid for it. She half-turned to see two men in black suits, each wearing a pressed white shirt, one with a blue tie the other with a tie of gunmetal grey.

“Correct; and you are?”

“Representatives of interested parties. Will you come with us, please?”

“I suppose that depends on where you want me to go with you to,” she answered, taking a sip of her iced coffee, as her eyes narrowed thoughtfully, analytically, on each of them.

_So, not going to give me your names, huh? All right, grey tie guy and blue tie guy it is._

“Just to the park, ma'am. You needn't worry too much,” answered blue tie guy.

“We're not here with hostile intentions, ma'am,” added grey tie guy. She thought she picked up a hint of a Canadian accent, which was a bit unexpected, not that she'd expected any men in pressed suits to come talk to her.

“Very well. Let's walk. I reserve the right to leave unexpectedly whenever I feel like it.” The two men blinked just a bit, then motioned through the door as grey tie guy opened the door for her. The park was fortunately not far away, and the two men led in the direction of a stream manufactured into the park's landscaped layout. Once they reached the moderately private space of the bridge, the two men stopped and turned toward her.

“So who are you and what do you want?” Grey tie guy answered by pulling a wallet-like object out of his coat and flipping it open, showing a picture of himself.

“William Johns, Canadian Security Intelligence Service, here on behalf of the scientific inquiries of the Queen and the Commonwealth,” answered the CSIS Agent.

“All right, and what about you, blue tie guy?” The man glanced down at his tie, then up, and offered a brief smirk.

“Jacob Hawley, same mission, different boss. Have you heard of MI6?”

“Every American that's ever been to a movie theatre has heard of MI6. I hope you're not going to tell me that you're the guy the Tom Cruise movies are based on.” Johns smirked and coughed into his hand, letting a sidelong glance shift over to his companion.

“No. No, I'm not, and I would not be at liberty to tell you so, if I were,” he answered, and Selene chuckled a little at what seemed fairly evidently like a joke.

“Fair enough. What does the Commonwealth want?”

“We have been asked to express the Queen's appreciation for the dissemination of the research data you collected in your recent... extraplanetary expedition,” replied William, with an expression that said he could scarcely believe that his job had found him in a position to use the phrase 'extraplanetary expedition' in a serious manner.

“We have also been asked to pursue the possibility of a business arrangement in the future. Your findings have been reviewed over the last three weeks and all evidence suggests them to be legitimate. The Princes have asked us to propose the possibility of allowing the Commonwealth nations to purchase any historical, archaeological or anthropological relics found on the planet you designated as Phoenix.”

“To what end?”

“Our anthropologists and archaeologists have expressed tremendous curiosity about the artifacts you've recovered, and the Princes would like it to be able to be exhibited in national museums in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, to allow the general public to see it. The value of what you've recovered, the first evidence of exobiological life that we as a planet have ever seen, cannot be understated,” William added.

“I have also been instructed to ask how you were able to reach the planet, and to confirm the distance of the planet, from Earth.”

“I possess...” she started as she set down her coffee cup. A brief shimmer of dim purple light and she vanished right in front of them, appearing four feet behind them, just beyond arm's reach.

“...abilities.” Both men jumped and whirled around to face her when she vanished right out from in front of them to simultaneously appear behind them. As the men stared, eyes wide and jaws faintly slackened, she stepped between them and picked up her coffee, taking another drink from it.

“The planet in question is roughly twelve light years from Earth, give or take one hundred and seventy-six million kilometres.”

“Are you willing to allow us to purchase the relics from Phoenix, and to grant the Commonwealth some priority for future expeditions, and if you are, what would be the price you ask?” replied William, recovering his voice first.

“I am, conditional to the fact that you hold up your end of the bargain. It must be gingerly and thoroughly studied, but you must release the findings worldwide and must place them into national museums for display purposes. I think that I have established my ability to... recover, any such artifacts that... fail to turn up.”

“Of course,” answered Jacob with a faint nod, “and the price?”

“One million dollars, and a moderately customized Terradyne Gurkha RPV, for the relics that have been recovered from Phoenix. I have sufficient protection, it need not be armed, but it needs to have a maximization of the cargo capacity; it will need only a front passenger seat. The entire back section must be compatible with cargo storage. I am a life scientist but as you have seen in the video, I am capable of conscientiously and appropriately collecting relics from any far-off planets.”

“We will be in touch to pick up the artifacts once we have confirmed the money is transferred into your account,” William answered, and Selene nodded.

“Very well,” she answered, tossing her emptied coffee cup into the nearby trash canister, “Goodbye.” One heartbeat later, she vanished into thin air as she returned to her apartment. As she returned, she heard someone knocking on her door; answering the door, she found herself making eye contact with a pair of hazel irises that were strangely, vaguely familiar, set in a man about her own age with an attractive complexion.

“Hello?”

“Doctor Selene Hallows?”

“Yes.”

“Doctor Aaron Her,” the man introduced himself, looking at her through a pair of slim, stylish glasses, “I have one question for you.”

“Okay?”

“Natarans.” His words were more statement than question, more declaration than inquiry. She blinked, then stepped back and twisted her body to one side, allowing him to walk in.

“Natarans,” he confirmed as she shut the door.

“Yes. You were in the cafeteria once at the same time as me,” she answered, and he rolled his shoulders in answer.

“I wasn't really paying attention to the eating-hall at the time. They made sure we ate healthy but also our favourite foods,” Aaron replied.

“Understandable. So, I take it you saw the news.”

“The whole world has seen the news, by this point. I want you to take me with you to the next place you go.”

“Pardon me?”

“My abilities can assist in expeditions, as can my education. My brain is a neural linguistics processor able to learn any language by hearing it being spoken, by touching a written document containing it, and I can transmit that knowledge to another at will, through touch. I also have doctorates in anthropology, diplomacy, and linguistics, and possess proficiency in self-defense sufficient to not require you to protect me.”

“Well, you certainly memorized your resume,” she replied, and he nodded.

“But?”

“Combat skill would not protect you from instant death if we ended up in an acidic atmosphere, on the surface of a radioactive planet, or inside the atmosphere of a gas giant,” she replied, “Did they give you an environment suit?”

“Yes, but, you don't know what kind of planet you're going to before you go?”

“I can sense life-giving planets, but I don't get to look out a window and physically see the conditions on the planet. I can jump to known locations, locations within my line of sight, or locations where I can sense the presence of tremendous volumes of life. They gave me a mobile field emitter and an environment suit, so that wherever I decide to transport to, I am as safe as possible from environmental and atmospheric considerations. I also have tactile telekinesis, permitting me to lift a maximum of ten thousand pounds, including myself, to facilitate functional flight capabilities.”

“Their genetic engineering capabilities still amaze me,” Aaron answered, “So?”

“All right, I can take you with me. I was actually planning to leave for another expedition in around a week,” came the answer, “Once I've made a certain sale. Come with me, I'll let you have a look at the artifacts before I sell them.”

“You're planning to sell the artifacts you recovered from Phoenix?”

“Given certain preconditions, yes. The Commonwealth nations – Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom – are purchasing them to perform the appropriate studies and examinations, and to then be able to house them in museums so that the general public will have access to be able to see them.”

“Ah, well, that's an understandable sale, then. The general public should get to see as much of it as possible and as much as they care to see,” Aaron agreed, and followed her to see what she had recovered.

“So, I hope you do not mind me asking, but you have a very unusual name...”

“Korean; my father is a travel writer, my mother is part of the South Korean ambassadorial delegation for about the last thirty years. I grew up here, I've only actually been to South Korea four times.”

For her part, Selene resolved to get to know him as well as possible in the week before leaving for an expedition on another planet of uncertain characteristics and uncertain duration.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is sort of a prologue for the Starwanderer Chronicles, which will contain erotic content. As always, please let me know what you think! All polite commentary and critique, any courteous questions, absolutely welcome!


End file.
